In a sweeping move aimed at clamping down on what it calls “frivolous spending,” the Trump administration has terminated four Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees for authorizing $59 million in payments to upscale New York City hotels used to house and care for illegal migrants.
The firings, confirmed Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), came on the heels of a high-profile social media post by Elon Musk. Musk, acting through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) agency—a temporary group established to root out wasteful government expenditures—highlighted the questionable spending on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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“Effective immediately, FEMA is terminating the employment of four individuals for circumventing leadership to unilaterally make egregious payments for luxury NYC hotels for migrants,” DHS said in a statement obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. The dismissed employees include FEMA’s Chief Financial Officer, two program analysts, and a grant specialist.
Musk’s post drew widespread attention as he decried the payments, “The @DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants. Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order. That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals! A clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds.”
Under President Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Noem’s leadership, officials claim that such unauthorized spending will no longer be tolerated. “Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, DHS will not sit idly and allow deep state activists to undermine the will and safety of the American people,” the DHS statement added.
The controversy centers on payments made by FEMA, funds originally allocated for disaster relief, which critics argue were diverted to support the housing and care of illegal migrants in luxury hotels across New York City. In recent years, New York City officials have repeatedly turned to high-end accommodations—such as the four-star Collective Paper Factory, the “chic” Square Hotel, and The Row—to shelter asylum seekers amid a surge in migration.
A hotel booking service website, Kayak, defines a four-star hotel as providing “guest rooms that are noticeably more spacious, with top-quality linens, pillowtop mattresses, bathrobes, slippers, minibars, and upscale toiletries, plus equipped kitchens.” With approximately 230,000 migrants arriving in New York City since the spring of 2022, local authorities have increasingly relied on such venues to manage the influx.
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The Trump administration has long positioned itself against what it perceives as government overreach and inefficient spending. President Trump established DOGE through an executive order on his first day in office, setting an 18-month deadline for the agency to root out waste and ensure taxpayer dollars are spent in the national interest.
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